Sid Meier's Ace PatrolReview

If you made a list of vehicles you wouldn’t want to maneuver with a touch screen, the World War I-era airplane would probably rank high. Yet Sid Meier and the Firaxis team surprised me by making Ace Patrol a joy to play – a mixture of turn-based tactical combat and a quick, level-to-level structure that works well on mobile devices. The repetitive mission structure gets tedious, but the battles never do. This is dogfighting done right.

Exit Theatre Mode

Ace Patrol dresses like World War I, feels like a board game, and plays out in tense strategy. Though the selection of available maneuvers is initially small, you’ll eventually level up your pilots so that they can roll, dive, and flip in most directions in an effort to position your birds behind opposing planes. The moves are plenty and easy to use – anticipating multiple enemies’ movements is where things get tricky and thrilling.

It seems like a no-brainer to choose the harder levels first to earn more XP, but crashed pilots take time to heal, and sometimes they’re taken prisoner by the enemy. There’s a constant need to check your greed against your skills, and it satisfyingly pushes you to be better.

Not content to end there, Ace Patrol frequently ups the ante by incorporating asymmetrical multiplayer in which one side has a target-based objective, while the other side simply has to defend. This can include destroying a cargo train, or a wonderful version of the often-hated escort mission. It gives rise to some interesting tactical possibilities: for example, you know the enemy is going to make a run at your defenseless zeppelin, that's a vulnerability you can exploit. Most missions let you control multiple planes, so using one to divert enemies from an objective is a smart and satisfying tactic.

Sadly, these great aerial antics can’t yet be taken online. The menu option for competitive multiplayer is there, but the feature is currently missing in action. Firaxis is looking into the issue, but right now it just doesn't work.

The first six levels of the British campaign are free, but if you want to keep playing you’ll need to fork out $.99 to access the remaining 18 missions. Additional campaigns for the French, Americans, and Germans are $1.99 each, with a bundle deal available. That sounds like it'd add up, but because they all rely on similar mission designs, there isn’t much reason to buy them all. That first dollar will net you plenty of game.

The Verdict

Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol combines Firaxis’ storied tactics with fast-paced mission design that thrives on mobile devices. These dogfights never get old, and the risk to your pilots makes them tense and thrilling. When the multiplayer's fixed, that could be fun too.